Apple shareholders applaud Apple and Tim Cook in the FBI fight

Apple shareholders gave Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO, a standing ovation Friday during the company’s annual shareholder meeting and appeared to support the company in its running battle with the FBI.

Cook thanked the shareholders for their support particularly in the “last couple of weeks” and told them that the company is confident it is right in the dispute:

We are staunch advocates about our customers’ privacy and personal safety and we’ve been in the news about that and some of you may have questions on that. We do these things because they are the right thing to do.

Rev. Jesse Jackson of the Rainbow Push Coalition applauded the company for its stance, saying there has to be a way that supports “personal freedom and privacy and supports the needs of law enforcement and national security.” He evoked an era in U.S. history when law enforcement created an enemies list of civil rights leaders who were being monitored. What could happen if the government had even more powers to monitor people than it did then, he asked.

Cindy Cohn of the Electronic Frontier Foundation also said she supports the company and planned to file an amicus brief in support. “It’s wrong for the government to force a company or a coder” to write code that weakens security, she said. The issue is about “our safety and government overreach.”

The annual meeting Friday was attended by roughly 200 shareholders and capped quite a week for the iPhone maker.

Apple is caught in a war of words with the FBI surrounding the encryption of the iPhone used by Syed Farook, one of the San Bernardino assailants responsible for the death of 14 people in December and the serious injury of 22. The dispute even made the GOP presidential debate this week.

The company responded to a court order that the company comply with the FBI’s request.

Cook made a 30-minute appearance this week on ABC News defending the company’s stance on the controversy. In trying to make a point about how serious the situation is, Cook compared cracking the iPhone’s protections to writing the “software equivalent of cancer.”

How each side makes their case and frames the issue matters, as I have written, since the company is asking for a public discussion. So far, public opinion polls show people are roughly divided evenly in support for Apple and for the FBI.

At the annual meeting, shareholders asked about other topics such as how retail stores serve the business community and Apple’s future in China and India.

When will the new campus be finished? January 2017 “we think some people will be able to more in,” Cook said. “It’s going to be so wonderful to …get many people back in one building again….Steve spent the last couple years of his life really dedicating himself to that project. It will be the center of innovation for years to come.”

And is Apple in cars? Cook: “Remember when you were a kid and Christmas Eve it was so exciting and you weren’t sure what was going to be downstairs? It’s going to be Christmas Eve for awhile.”

Shareholders voted down a proposal asking the company to accelerate the recruitment process of senior leadership in order to make those ranks more diverse. Ninety-four percent were against, 5 percent were for the measure.

Tim Cook, a terrorist and gang-banger enabler, is a traitor and should be dealt with accorcingly. You’re not protecting my privacy but endangering my life and like the Clintons you are not above the law.

mstrmac

lash….. there are no laws governing this. Congress makes the laws not the courts. Please refrain from enabling ignorance to others.

TrickyDickie

“center of innovation for years to come…” LOL!

Guy LeDouche

Anything to boost share prices. Of course the American people will side with the 1%er who collects, tracks and shares all their private information and blast the government entity trying to gain an upper hand on people who are trying to kill us.

Jate Naeger

I was ambivalent about this issue… Up until Jesse Jackson opened his racist mouth. Even though the Murky Gnus was on Cook’s jock, I figured I’d read the Court decision to see the facts involved. I’m generally against whatever the Editor of this rag opines for, and an advocate of Apple products and philosophy. Now that the race baiters are aligned with Marshman, I suppose it’s time to give up on Apple after all.

5150

ISIS will be buying the iPhone by the truck load.

peatree

Apple should stick to not unlocking. Having said that it should be possible for FBI to give the phone to Apple and them to take it into a room away from the FBI watching and get the pertinent info the FBI is seeking and give FBI the info, while not giving them access to the phone or method of retrieval. Both save face. Apple has not given away a back door, and FBI gets what they want, the info stored on the phone.

B Welsh

All they are asking is for Apple to remove the “self destruct” part on this one particular phone and then they will look into the phone data themselves. That’s no danger to other iPhones.

Cook is just bleeding this for the publicity.

Cyberdemon

Yep, and yet some people just can’t grasp that and create a complex problem like Cook did.

Jate Naeger

I was ambivalent about this issue… Even though the Murky Gnus was all up in Cook’s gravy, I figured I’d read the Court decision myself to see the facts involved since you generally can’t trust this newspaper. This could be a rare moment when Marshman is wearing her tin foil hat.

I’m generally against whatever the Editor of this rag opines for, and an advocate of Apple products and their tech philosophy. When Jesse Jackson opened his racist mouth, the decision was made for me. Now that the race baiters are aligned with Marshman, I suppose it’s time to give up on Apple after all.

Simonh2159

F.b.i.moved back to blackberry,why won’t apple allow f.b.i access to there encryption system,blackberry do nothing to hide!